I play through Arcade mode as Ryu, scoring tons of vs. points, but, at the end, instead of fighting M.Bison, I see a frame of Akuma, as if I'm supposed to fight him, and the game freezes. I've been through the game a few times, and it always freezes at that point. Is it my copy of the game or has anyone else had this experience?

I am not sure I played with Chung Li and got to Bison fine. I would exchange your copy if I were you.

I can fight Bison; it's only when I rack up tons of points and am supposed to fight Akuma that my game freezes. Sorry about the misunderstanding. Any help would be greatly appreciated. (I might borrow my friend's copy to see if it has the same bug.)

It's a bug. I'm not sure if Capcom fixed it yet. Funny how it worked fine in Japan, but when Capcom USA touched it, it got all screwy.